When Walt Disney’s daughters begged him to make a movie of their favorite book, P.L. Travers’ Mary Poppins, he made them a promise—one that he didn’t realize would take 20 years to keep. In his quest to obtain the rights, Walt comes up against a curmudgeonly, uncompromising writer who has absolutely no intention of letting her beloved magical nanny get mauled by the Hollywood machine. But, as the books stop selling and money grows short, Travers reluctantly agrees to go to Los Angeles to hear Disney’s plans for the adaptation.

For those two short weeks in 1961, Walt Disney pulls out all the stops. Armed with imaginative storyboards and chirpy songs from the talented Sherman brothers, Walt launches an all-out onslaught on P.L. Travers, but the prickly author doesn’t budge. He soon begins to watch helplessly as Travers becomes increasingly immovable and the rights begin to move further away from his grasp.

It is only when he reaches into his own childhood that Walt discovers the truth about the ghosts that haunt her, and together they set Mary Poppins free to ultimately make one of the most endearing films in cinematic history.

Walt Disney Home Entertainment has announced that its emotional winter movie, Saving Mr. Banks, which follows the relationship of Walt Disney and P.L. Travers and the making of Mary Poppins is headed onto Blu-ray, DVD, On-Demand and Digital soon. The flick will hit all formats beginning on March 18.

What’s left is a competitive, dynamic field of nominees that can count sixty seven nominations amongst three people, while still leaving room for two first-time honorees. Could this year be a sonic passing of the torch?

Streep turned out to present the Best Actress honor of the National Board of Review to Emma Thompson for her role as Mary Poppins author P.L. Travers in Saving Mr. Banks. But when she took to the podium, she did more than sing the praises of her friend and peer Thompson, she called out Disney for anti-Semitism and gender bigotry.

Mary Poppins is a timely addition, with the recent biopic Saving Mr. Banks winning over most audiences this holiday season. John Sturges’ legendary western The Magnificent Seven also made the cut, as what will probably be a misguided remake looms on the horizon.

Not only is Schwartzman a talented actor, he is also a skilled musician, both as a solo act and drummer and songwriter for the band Phantom Planet. In the new film Saving Mr. Banks, the actor sees both of those worlds collide portraying the legendary Disney composer Richard Sherman.

As part of a press day for the film late last month in Los Angeles, I had the opportunity to sit down one-on-one with Hancock and discuss what truth really means both in the context of feature filmmaking and in bringing the story behind the film Mary Poppins to life.

Last month I had the pleasure of sitting down with the star one-on-one at a press event for Saving Mr. Banks, and in our conversation we touched on multiple aspects of his impressive performance. Read on to find out more!

The Oscar-winning actor says it best when he admits, “I don’t look anything like Walt Disney. I don’t sound like him.” But it only takes him matching the whimsical confidence that Disney exuded to wipe the slate clean as far as preconceived ideas of appearances are concerned. The chameleon-like manner in which Hanks can insert himself into roles is always impressive, and even in his least exciting films, he is still the breath of relatable air that makes them universally watchable.

Huge week happening here this time around. No time to waste with droll/genius/thought-provoking banter here in the opening. Way too much heading into theaters. We’ve got Hobbits-ies, Mary Poppins, Americans hustling and Madea celebrating Christmas.

Having been lucky enough to see Her, I can tell you that it certainly is one of the best movies of 2013. But it does continue this very strange trend of year-end critic lists singling out movies no one has seen!

All the cards of Oscar season aren't quite laid out, as we wait just one more week for American Hustle to start screening for guilds, and probably not much longer for Martin Scorsese to finally finishWolf of Wall Street. But a lot of the question marks have been revealed, as virtually every movie with a shot in the Oscar race-- plus some major longshots-- have been unveiled in the last few months.

Walt Disney Studios has many exciting and anticipated titles in the pipeline for us, and have promised that we will be getting an exclusive sneak peek at Saving Mr. Banks, Thor: The Dark World, Muppets Most Wanted, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Maleficent and Tomorrowland.

Tom Hanks as Walt Disney. If you need another selling point on seeing Saving Mr. Banks, you've clearly gotten way too far away from your childhood. But just in case, here's the first trailer for Saving Mr. Banks, which ought to give you a million other reasons to see the movie-- Emma Thompson as the uptight Mary Poppins author P.L. Travers, a classic conflict between an amiable American and a stuffy Brit, a trip to old-school DIsneyland

Let's make a list of straightforward, warm-hearted, lovable American men who we want to be our adoptive fathers. Tom Hanks is totally at the top of it, right? Our modern-day answer to Jimmy Stewart, Hanks has spent decades embodying pretty much everything good about American identity, from fearless World War II soldiers to history-changing Alabamans to a kid who just wants to make better toys

First let's start over at Marvel Studios, which is just coming off the ridiculous success of Shane Black's Iron Man 3 last month. The company has actually made a habit of owning the first week in May, releasing Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Thor, The Avengers and Iron Man 3 on that weekend, and it appears that they will continue that habit for years to come.

There aren't many studio creators that the average movie-goer could pick out of a line-up, but Walt Disney's look was pretty damn iconic. From the nice suit, to the short and tight haircut to the perfectly manicured mustache, Disney didn't need to be palling around with Mickey Mouse to get noticed.

Last week we learned that Jason Schwartzman, along with Paul Giamatti and Ruth Wilson, had joined the cast of Saving Mr. Banks, the new movie about the behind-the-scenes drama that led to the making of Mary Poppins. The actor/musician was hired to play Richard Morton Sherman, who is best known for writing the music for Mary Poppins, but he didn't work alone.

John Lee Hancock, who last directed the Oscar winning film The Blind Side in 2009, has already hit the jackpot in casting his next project. Titled Saving Mr. Banks, the film will tell the behind the scenes story of the struggle between Walt Disney and author P.L. Travers during the making of Mary Poppins, a project that Travers notoriously hated.

Farrell will play Travers’ father, the inspiration for the workaholic character George Banks in the famous musical Mary Poppins. Given Farrell’s age, in relation to Emma Thompson, we’re guessing that means he’ll be featured in flashbacks?

It’s not a Mary Poppins remake or sequel or reboot. Given the reaction we got from many readers the last time we shared news about this project, I thought that should be said upfront. Based on a “Black List” script by Kelly Marcel, Saving Mr. Banks will tell the story of how Walt Disney obtained the movie rights to Mary Poppins from the story’s author P.L. Travers. Apparently, this was no easy feat, and took fourteen years for Disney to accomplish.

The story sees Walt Disney and author P.L. Travers caught in a struggle as Disney tries to convince her to sell his studio the rights to her book so that he can make a film. The end result was that Travers hated the film - particularly the animated segments - and for the rest of her life refused to sell the rights to any of her other books to Disney.